Delaying Enrollment

Five days later, North River Mouth Town.

There was no market today, so there were not many people coming and going through town. Pedestrians moved along in twos and threes, each on their own way, and Ling Yi followed Ling Xiaoshan among them, just two of the most ordinary passersby in the sea of people.

At the Blacksmith Shop in the west of town, Ling Xiaoshan took out a handful of Copper Soul Coins and two Silver Soul Coins and handed them to a burly man with a grizzled beard. He accepted the bulging coarse cloth sack the man passed over, opened it, and peered inside.

Beside them, in front of the forging table, the sweat-soaked sturdy youth was raising his hammer and striking a red-hot iron ingot. Blow after blow, clang after clang, the rhythm was sometimes pleasant to the ear, sometimes broken by a few jarring notes.

Ling Yi stood obediently at the doorway, curiosity in his eyes as he quietly watched the scene inside the shop.

"Let's go~"

Ling Xiaoshan's clear voice sounded by his ear, and a warm, large hand covered the top of his head, drawing Ling Yi's gaze back.

He lifted his head and met Ling Xiaoshan's smiling eyes. Ling Yi nodded. "Mm!"

"Master Jiang, Bai Wa, we're off—"

"Sure~"

"Little Uncle, A Yi, take care—"

Amid the farewells from the Blacksmith Shop owner and the sturdy youth, the two figures, one large and one small, waved their hands and strode out of town beneath the blazing sun overhead.

"Clang! Clang—!"

As they walked, the coarse cloth sack inside the bamboo basket on Ling Xiaoshan's back let out crisp metallic clinks from time to time.

Six brand-new iron hoe blades. Once they got back and fitted them onto six straight, sturdy wooden shafts, they would have six fine hoes.

At present, in the Ling and Zhang families, the Martial Souls of the three male members of the Zhang family were all "Hoes," so using the "Farmer Three Forms"—Hoeing Form was naturally convenient for them. But Ling Changqing, Ling Xiaoshan, and Ling Yi himself needed actual hoes to perform it.

On top of that, his grandmother, Maternal Grandmother, mother, and eldest aunt would also go down to the fields to help with the work from time to time. They could not afford to be short on hoes.

"Little Yi~"

"Mm?"

"Now that you have this Basic Meditation Method, you need to cultivate properly once we get back. Don't go down to the fields anymore..." Ling Xiaoshan lowered his head to look at Ling Yi, speaking with a somewhat serious expression.

Hearing this, Ling Yi reached up and patted the spot over his chest, feeling the thin little booklet inside. He turned to look at his father and answered just as seriously, "Dad, don't worry. I'll cultivate properly."

"Only~"

Ling Xiaoshan had just been about to nod when Ling Yi's voice rang out again. "Dad, when I went to get the Basic Meditation Method before, Uncle Yan Bin told me that each cultivation session can't be too long. Depending on each person's level of talent, the length of time they can cultivate in a day varies. If they go past that time, not only does efficiency become extremely low, but if they aren't careful, it can even harm the body..."

"All right~" Listening to Ling Yi's words, Ling Xiaoshan opened his mouth, but found himself somewhat unable to respond. After all, when it came to Martial Soul cultivation, he was a complete novice and had not the slightest right to speak on it.

He pursed his lips, seemed to remember something, and then asked, "Right, Little Yi, you can read this meditation method, can't you?"

"Although we've taught you some characters over the years, I don't know if it's enough. If you ask me, we might as well sell all the wild chickens and Wild Rabbits we're raising at home. That way, you'll have tuition money to go study in Mu Zhi City..."

Ling Xiaoshan did not bring up the quota for Work-study Students, because both he and Ling Yi knew that this year, it had nothing to do with them.

What was a Work-study Student?

And where did the quota for Work-study Students come from?

It was very simple. A city was supported by the surrounding villages and towns, which supplied most of the food, vegetables, fruit, meat, and other goods needed for its daily consumption.

Among these, quite a large portion was offered up by the residents of the villages and towns without compensation. Calling it tax paid to the rulers would not be wrong.

Under such circumstances, the masters were naturally willing to give commoner Soul Masters with aptitude and hope of crossing class boundaries an opportunity—a chance to enroll for free.

Not only was enrollment free, they also provided some work-study opportunities, letting them earn a little money for meals outside class time.

In this way, once these commoner Soul Masters grew up, whether they were absorbed into the masters' existing circles or returned to their hometowns to become new little masters themselves, it was all benefit and no harm.

And if, by some chance, one hit the jackpot and produced a genius, then the profit would be enormous!

That was getting off topic. Back to the point.

The quota for Work-study Students was allocated downward by the city where the Junior Soul Master Academy was located, determined according to the contributions of the towns and Rural Villages beneath it, as well as the prosperity of the city itself.

Unfortunately, Waterwood Principality was one of the smallest nations on Douluo Continent. Its national territory was not even as large as the smallest province of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Or rather, it had originally been carved out from one of the smallest provinces of the Heaven Dou Empire.

The entire country had only three cities, and its Capital City, Mu Zhi City, could only be considered an ordinary large city when looking across Douluo Continent.

At the same time, because of the state of the nation, most of those with Soul Master aptitude were also concentrated in those three cities.

Out in the countryside, often more than ten years would pass before there appeared a Soul Master with hope of cultivating to Soul Elder or above.

Thus, most of the quotas from the Junior Soul Master Academy in Mu Zhi City were assigned only as far down as the town level, not to the village level.

In short, Work-study Student quotas did exist, but North River Mouth Town had only two or three of them.

Coincidentally, this year, there were three descendants of Soul Masters in town who had reached Six Years Old and had also awakened Innate Soul Power.

As children of Soul Masters, their odds of awakening Innate Soul Power were still somewhat higher after all...

On the sunlit country dirt road, the two figures, one large and one small, gradually went farther and farther away. The open fields were empty and still. The breeze carried a trace of scorching heat as it fell upon the dispirited Blue Silver Grass plants beside the road, shattering into patches of brilliant gold.

As he walked, Ling Yi calculated the "wealth" his family currently possessed.

As for the matter of the Work-study Student quota, Ling Yi merely ran it through his mind once before tossing it to the back of his head.

Although enrolling earlier would allow him to learn more knowledge related to Martial Souls and Soul Beasts sooner, even within the Junior Soul Master Academy, what the students cultivated was still only the Basic Meditation Method.

Ling Yi had already confirmed this with Yan Bin.

Since that was the case, for Ling Yi, whose Innate Soul Power was only half a rank, there was no real difference between enrolling a year earlier or a year later.

In any case, once he reached the academy, the focus would basically still be on Soul Power cultivation, with learning materials on Martial Souls and Soul Beasts only as a supplement.

If so, he might as well first cultivate his Soul Power level at home, and once the time was right, go to a Junior Soul Master Academy as a Work-study Student to absorb that knowledge.

With Ling Yi's current level of Mental Strength, and the learning ability and memory he had developed from it, quickly mastering the teaching content of a single Junior Soul Master Academy should not be too much of a problem—just like Yu Xiaogang in the original work, who had memorized all the books in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and Spirit Hall collections.

Facing the lush green plants and trees on both sides of the country road, a faint light flickered in Ling Yi's eyes.

Starting tomorrow, he would be a hardworking Soul Master, advancing his body, spirit, and Soul Power together.

Starting tomorrow, he would lead the relatives and friends of the Ling and Zhang families to farm, breed livestock, hunt, and enter prosperity together!